{in}Appropriate

Birds of Sorrow

This photograph was deleted from my Instagram account for “violating community guidelines” and has gotten me thinking a lot about censorship, specifically of women’s bodies, art that is not centered on the “male gaze” and particularly art that champions women’s power, strength and lack of shame over our bodies. I’ve had over a dozen of my other photographs censored from Instagram since this one and so, accidentally I have created this series.

Denying basic healthcare to 51% of the population is sexist and misogynistic. It is immoral and unethical. It is backwards thinking if you want to prevent unplanned pregnancies. And preventing unplanned pregnancies does not eliminate the need for abortions. The decision to have an abortion is one of the hardest decisions that a woman will ever have to make. Anyone trying to insert their laws into a decision that is ultimately the woman’s is just plain wrong. She may want the guidance or support of her partner, her doctor, her friends, her religious leader, her family, but she does not need or want politicians trying to get into her personal life. It is her freedom to make medical choices about what does or does not happen to her body.

You, With the Mouth That Rambles Incessantly

you with the mouththat rambles, talkingincessantly, in orderto drown out the voicesthat challenge your hatredthe sounds you make are loud,and grating on my nervesyou speak of protectionand saving those who are noteven born yetand you look away, every chance you getto avoid seeing the childrenin need, who are already bornyou, with the penis and the hairy chestand the spendy suit with the red tie,fantasizing about passing lawsto control and restrict mybody, my uterusand I will fightyou, and your lawsWE will fight you and your lawsbecause our bodies belong to usand you will never(!) own us

I Am Not Here For Your Pleasure

Look Here, At Me, I Am

look here, at meI am your motherI am your sisteryour daughteryour wife.my bodymy breastsmy mouthmy handsare mineI am not herefor your pleasurefor you to do as you wishyour hands, your wicked lawsdo not belong on my body.take this mirror and lookat your own reflectionsee the fearfulnesssee the jealousysee the painsee the human.now ask yourselfwhy you have any sayin what I do with my body?why is it you are afraid of me?how can you trust me with a child,when you don’t trust me with a choice?.now take your jealousyand pain and fearhold them in your heartand speak kindly to yourselfwhile I stand tall and rage against the world’s evil

Women Bear the Burden, and the Babies

Abortions have been happening for as long as women have been having babies, they are going to continue to happen for as long as women continue to have babies. The only thing in question is whether or not those abortions will be safe and whether or not a woman risks going to prison for the rest of her life..Rapists can still get off (pun intended) with little to no jail time. Priests and parents can still ruin the lives of (their) children by sexually assaulting them, and get little to no jail time. Terrorists (the white American male variety) can still shoot up schools and kill kids left and right all day long and still be treated pretty damned decently, but a woman who exercises her god damned right to not continue to host an embryo, a fetus in her body? Well, in that case let’s throw her away and lock up the key..Anti-choice legislation has nothing to do with saving the lives of the unborn and everything to do with controlling the bodies and the lives of uterus bearing humans. .#mybodymychoice ..

The Young Me

when I was youngthe world was my oysterit was salty and rawand quite crackedits shell threatening to cut me, if I handledit without care without lovewith no thought.now I am older, notnecessarily wiser,but more cautious and prone to think outmy ventures into the unknown,at least more so than the young me.the young me felt men’s handswhere they shouldn’t be.the young me heard men yell to me on the street and whisper while they stood too close in line.the young me heard boys cheered for being rude and possessiveof me, of other girls.the young me saw womenexpected to work harderfor a smaller paycheckand for no credit .the young me saw teenage girlsridiculed for getting pregnantby older men, who should be shamedfor raping and impregnating girls not yet old enough to vote.teenage girls whose lives were forever changed,choosing to became teenage mothers.or teenage girls, forced to facethe taunting, sometimesviolent, crowds, often alone,for choosing to wait to becomea mother, because she is still a child herself.where is the blame for the boy, or the man, who got her pregnant,where is the shame, the ridiculethe lost opportunities for him?. abortion bansare like societywomen are blamedand shamed, they bearthe burden, and the babieswhile men make lawsto keep us wherethey want us,.real men, they knowthat our bodies belong only to ourselves